Apparently, directing the fastest-growing university in the area has its perks.

Stevenson University President Kevin J. Manning earned $1.5 million in 2009, making him the 15th best compensated private college president in the United States, according to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

But while Manning earned almost $3.5 million less than top-earner Constantine N. Papadakis of Drexel University, who died in 2009, the Stevenson boss was No. 1 in another category.

The disparity between Manning's salary and that of Stevenson professors was the greatest among private colleges surveyed. Manning made 16 times the average full professor at his university in 2009.

Kevin G. Byrnes, the Stevenson board chairman, told The Chronicle that $1.1 million of Manning's salary could be attributed to nine years of deferred compensation, a one-time payout. Manning has been president at the university since 2000.

Manning's base salary for this fiscal year, which started in July 2011, is $305,000 without bonuses, The Baltimore Sun reported.

“I am confident that President Manning’s compensation is fair, warranted, and reflects his exemplary record of accomplishment and service to the university,” Byrnes wrote to fellow board members in a memo provided to The Chronicle.

The Chronicle surveyed 519 private-college presidents whose institutional budgets exceed $50 million, the report said. Manning was one of just 36 presidents to earn more than $1 million in 2009.

Manning, who received his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Ohio State University in 1982, has overseen a boom at Stevenson, which was called Villa Julie College when he was inaugurated in October 2000.

Perhaps most notably, Manning opened a second location for the university along Owings Mills Boulevard in 2008, creating a residential campus that houses 1,500 students and now includes a new football stadium.

In September, Stevenson was named to U.S. News and World Report's list of Top "Up-and-Coming" schools.

In November, the university acquired more land, purchasing the adjacent, 28-acre Shire Pharmaceuticals site for $10.5 million. Stevenson's School of the Sciences and School of Design will move to the property from the university's Greenspring campus by August 2013.